Discussions over a ceasefire are intensifying as Israel kills more Palestinians, sowing doubts that a deal can happen.
Discussions of a ceasefire in Gaza have picked up in recent days.
United States President Donald Trump said last week that Israel agreed to the conditions for a 60-day ceasefire, and negotiators could meet to carve out a path to finally ending Israel’s nearly 21-month-long war on Gaza.
Hamas said it delivered a “positive response” to mediators, with amendments, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Palestinian group’s asks “unacceptable” but sent negotiators to the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks nonetheless.
Netanyahu is set to visit Washington, DC, on Monday, where reports say Trump would like a deal.
“There could be a Gaza deal next week,” Trump told reporters on Saturday, adding that he had not been briefed yet about Hamas’s counterproposal but that it was “good” that they had responded.
Here’s all you need to know:
What is Hamas asking for?
According to reports, there are three main demands:
An end to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)
At least 743 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid at GHF sites in Gaza in recent weeks.
In late June, the Haaretz newspaper reported that Israeli soldiers were deliberately ordered to fire on unarmed people waiting for food.
Humanitarians have repeatedly said they are able to distribute aid and food to Palestinians in Gaza and have criticised the GHF for furthering Israel’s political agenda.
“It makes aid conditional on political and military aims,” Tom Fletcher, the United Nations chief humanitarian, said in May.
“It makes starvation a bargaining chip. It is a cynical sideshow … A fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”
Israeli military withdrawals
Hamas wants the Israeli military to withdraw to the positions it held before it violated the ceasefire in March of this year.
In May, the Israeli military began extensive new ground operations in Gaza, killing hundreds of Palestinians, to take “operational control” of large swaths of the Strip.
The Israeli military had already created the Netzarim Corridor, which splits the Gaza Strip into northern and southern sectors, soon after launching the war, and in April, Netanyahu announced the creation of the Morag Corridor in the southern Gaza Strip.
International guarantees for an end to the war
In March, Israel unilaterally broke a ceasefire that had been agreed in January, despite the conditions for the ceasefire being upheld by the Palestinian side.
This time, Hamas and other Palestinian groups want international assurances that this will not be repeated.
Hamas reportedly wants a US guarantee that Israeli air attacks and ground operations, which have killed thousands of Palestinians, will not resume even if the ceasefire ends without a permanent end to the war.
What does the original US-backed proposal say?
There is reportedly a key focus on the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza.
The plan is to release 10 living Israeli captives held by Hamas and the bodies of 18 others in exchange for Palestinians lodged in Israeli prisons. The release would be staggered over a number of days.
Fifty captives are still in Gaza, with about 20 reportedly alive.
On the question of aid, the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross would contribute to distributing sufficient quantities to Palestinians.
Lastly, it calls for phased pull-outs of Israeli troops from parts of Gaza.
What is Israel saying?
Netanyahu reportedly agreed to the original US proposal but has called Hamas’s amendments “unacceptable”.
He has said he will not end the war until all captives are released and Hamas is “destroyed”. The latter goal has been called impossible by many analysts and is believed to be an open-ended political objective for Netanyahu to continue the war as long as he believes it will serve his personal interests.
Netanyahu is on trial for corruption and is still widely blamed in Israeli society for the security failures that led to Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, 2023, during which 1,139 people died in Israel and about 250 were taken captive.
Analysts believe Netanyahu wants to continue the retaliatory war on Gaza until he can gain enough political leverage to dismiss the cases against him and build enough popular support to remain the leader of Israel.
Netanyahu’s war has been supported by his far-right ministers, particularly Itamar Ben Gvir, minister of national security, and Bezalel Smotrich, the minister of finance. They want Israel’s military operations to be intensified to kill more Palestinians and to stop providing any aid to the besieged and starving people in Gaza.
What is life like for Palestinians in the meantime?
Israel is still launching deadly attacks on Gaza, with at least 138 Palestinians killed in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, bulldozers are demolishing homes, and Israel has killed more than 1,000 people since October 7, 2023.
People in the West Bank are also suffering recurring attacks by Israeli soldiers and armed settlers from illegal settlements, as well as severe limitations on movement and access to livelihoods.
What are the chances a deal will be reached?
Trump appears keen on reaching one, and Palestinians in Gaza are desperate for the Israeli attacks to cease.
However, one major roadblock remains.
“Israel and Netanyahu are not interested in reaching a ceasefire,” Adnan Hayajneh, professor of international relations at Qatar University, told media, adding that there is a “very slim chance” of a ceasefire.
“What Israel wants is clear … a land without a people,” Hayajneh said. “So Palestinians are given three choices … starve to death … get killed … [or] leave the land, but Palestinians have so far proven they will not leave the land, no matter what.”
